FAQ
Steam@OrangeFoxMini FAQ (OrangeFox Recovery)
Content
1.How I can donate to OrangeFox?
OrangeFox it's a free project, but if you wanna support us and donate on our domain and server, use [this PayPal](http://paypal.me/brickjungle)
2.How to install OrangeFox?
Flashing with another TWRP
To install OrangeFox zip, flash it with any custom recovery installed on your device (if u don't have read the next paragraph) don't wipe anything
How to flash OrangeFox Recovery via fastboot
You need a PC for this. If you do not have a PC, or access to a PC, then you are stuck!
+ Install adb, fastboot, and the relevant USB drivers onto your PC
+ Install the Mi Flash tool onto your PC
+ Download the correct OrangeFox zip file to your phone, and to your PC
+ Extract recovery.img from the OrangeFox zip file, and copy recovery.img to your PC’s adb directory
+ Reboot your phone into fastboot/bootloader mode
+ Unlock your bootloader (skip if done)
+ Open up a command line window / terminal emulator on your PC
+ Change to the adb directory on your PC
+ Flash OrangeFox Recovery use "fastboot flash recovery recovery.img" command
+ Reboot in recovery by pressing vol+ + power keys till you will see OrangeFox splash
+ After OrangeFox has booted up, check that everything is working – eg, that it has mounted the data partition successfully, and that the touchscreen works.
+ Select “Install”, then find and select the OrangeFox zip, and swipe to install it (because OrangeFox Recovery need some files from zip)
+ After installation, the phone will automatically reboot into OrangeFox
+ Enjoy!
3. How to setup MIUI OTA in OrangeFox Recovery
1. Download the most up-to-date release of OrangeFox Recovery
2. Download a full MIUI ROM that will be the basis of your future MIUI experience, and copy it to your phone’s storage
3. Flash the OrangeFox Recovery zip with your current custom recovery (or follow the steps in the thread for installing from adb/fastboot)
4. Reboot into OrangeFox Recovery (this will have happened automatically if you flashed the OrangeFox zip)
5. Go to the OrangeFox settings, and enable MIUI OTA
6. Go to the “Wipe” menu, and wipe data, cache, and dalvik
7. Flash your full MIUI ROM. After the ROM is flashed, OrangeFox will start the "OTA_BAK" process, which will backup your system and boot partitions into the /sdcard/Fox/OTA directory. You must NOT delete any of the files in the /sdcard/Fox/OTA directory. If you do, then incremental OTA updates will most definitely fail.
8. Reboot your phone, and start to use your phone normally
9. When MIUI notifies you that there is an update, download the update, using the MIUI updater app, and allow it to reboot automatically to OrangeFox
10. OrangeFox will install the update automatically (this might take several minutes)
11. OrangeFox will reboot the phone automatically upon completion of the installation of the MIUI OTA update
12. After this, you will not need to flash a full ROM any more - just follow the steps in #10 above
13. Enjoy
PS: If you want to move to a completely different version/build of MIUI, then you will first need to clean-flash the full ROM of that MIUI build, as described above.
4. Returning to a MIUI ROM from a Treble ROM (if your device have unofficial Treble)
+ Treble ROMs on many devices use MIUI’s “cust” partition for their vendor image. This process removes the Xiaomi proprietary files that are necessary for MIUI to run. These files must be restored, otherwise MIUI will not work properly.
+ For this purpose, the cleanest and easiest way to return to MIUI from a Treble ROM is to flash a full fastboot MIUI ROM, using the Mi Flash tool.
+ If you did not create a backup of your MIUI cust partition to MicroSD or USB-OTG before installing a Treble ROM, then you must use the method just described above (or else you can try flashing a stock vendor image for your device (if there is one for your device there))
+ If you DID create a backup of your MIUI cust partition (in the newest versions of OrangeFox, this would be the “vendor” partition – it points to the same location as “cust”) to MicroSD or USB-OTG, then you can use OrangeFox to install MIUI when coming from a Treble ROM - but you have to take certain steps:
1. Backup your internal memory to an external device (eg, MicroSD, USB-OTG, or your PC). DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP!
2. Copy the latest stable MIUI ROM to your MicroSD or USB-OTG storage
3. Boot OrangeFox
4. Make sure that OrangeFox can read your MicroSD or USB-OTG storage, and can see the MIUI ROM that you copied there. This is the ROM that you will install in the steps below.
5. Select the “Wipe” menu and wipe everything - system, dalvik, cache, vendor, etc (except MicroSD/USB-OTG)
6. Format data (“format” - not “wipe”) - you will lose all the contents of your internal memory after doing this
7. Reboot OrangeFox - you will see a message saying “No OS installed …” - just swipe to reboot OrangeFox
8. Restore the backup of your MIUI cust partition (in the latest releases of OrangeFox, this will need to be restored to the "vendor" partition)
9. Flash your MIUI ROM
10. Reboot to system, and wait for a long time ...
11. When ready, restore your backup of your internal memory from your external storage device.
5. Flashing ROMs
Flashing a ROM is usually a straightforward process. You can either do a "clean" flash, or a "dirty" flash.
First things:
When flashing a ROM, you want to ensure that the recovery is in a known state, before you start flashing the ROM. Therefore, you should always observe the following:
1. Do NOT flash a ROM in a queue with other zips. Always flash a ROM on its own, and when flashing is completed, reboot OrangeFox, before doing anything else.
2. If you ever wipe the /vendor partition, then you must reboot OrangeFox immediately afterwards - before doing anything else (eg, flashing a ROM or anything else you might want to do).
3. If you ever wipe the /system, partition, then you must reboot OrangeFox immediately afterwards - before doing anything else (ignoring any warnings about no OS being installed).
4. If you ever format the data partition, then you must reboot OrangeFox immediately afterwards - before doing anything else.
5. If your Xiaomi device has ARB, and you are on a MIUI ROM, then you had better tread very carefully if you want to change your MIUI ROM to a different MIUI ROM, or to a different version of the same MIUI ROM. Search on Google for "ARB", read and understand everything, and then decide whether you really need to proceed.
6. Make a full backup of your current ROM - before performing any other operations in the recovery. At the very least, backup the /system, /data, /boot and /vendor partitions.
7. Please note that, if you do not follow all of the above instructions, and you encounter problems afterwards (which you definitely will), I will not answer any questions.
A. "Clean flashing" (Strongly recommended)
1. Backup your applications, settings, SMS messages, call logs, etc Do NOT skip this step.
2. Bootup OrangeFox Recovery
3. Select "Wipe"
4. Swipe to reset to defaults (this will restore the installed ROM to a known state, and will remove apps/settings that might be incompatible with the ROM that you wish to install)
5. Return to the main OrangeFox menu
6. Select "Install"
7. Choose the ROM that you want to flash
8. Swipe to flash.
9. Reboot OrangeFox recovery - before doing anything else - so that any changes to partitions/filesystems done by flashing the new ROM will take full effect
10. Flash whatever else you might want to flash (eg, GAPPs, magisk, etc)
11. Reboot your device
12. Wait for a long time while the new ROM sets itself up (go and make a cup of tea!)
13. Enjoy
B. "Dirty flashing" (NOT recommended)
1. Bootup OrangeFox Recovery
2. Select "Install"
3. Choose the ROM that you want to flash
4. Swipe to flash
5. Wipe cache and dalvik
6. Reboot OrangeFox recovery - before doing anything else - so that any changes to partitions/filesystems done by flashing the new ROM will take full effect
7. Flash whatever else you might want to flash (eg, GAPPs, magisk, etc)
8. Reboot your device
9. Enjoy
NOTE: Dirty flashing a ROM is NOT recommended. It can cause all kinds of random problems. Always choose to "clean flash"
6. How do I configure the OrangeFox recovery?
Tap on *Menu*, and tap on the settings icon at the top right of the screen. You will see all the
various settings.
7. How do I format data?
Go to *Menu -> Manage Partitions -> Data -> Format Data*. When you have finished formatting your data,
reboot OrangeFox *before* doing anything else.
8. How do I restore my ROM to default settings?
Tap on "*Wipe*", tick *Dalvik/Art Cache, Cache, Data*, and swipe to wipe
9. I want to make a backup of my ROM. Which partitions must I backup?
At the very least, backup *Boot, System, Data, and Vendor*
10. I want to clean-flash a new ROM. What do I need to wipe before flashing?
At the very least, you should wipe *Dalvik/Art Cache, Cache, and Data*.
Some ROM developers recommend also wiping System. It is always a good idea to reboot the recovery
**immediately** after wiping.
11. I want to flash something. How do I do select the file that I want to flash?
Tap on "*Files*", and navigate to the file that you want to flash. Tap on it, and you will see
the options for <u>flashing</u>. If you long-press on a file name, you will see a list of all the
operations that you can perform on that file.
12. Do I need to flash a "Mount system" zip when using OrangeFox?
No.
13. Do I need to flash a "DM-Verity / Forced-Encryption" zip when using OrangeFox?
No.
14. Where are the settings for MIUI OTA?
Tap on *Menu*, and tap on the settings icon at the top right of the screen. You will see all the various settings, including MIUI OTA.
15. Will OrangeFox encrypt my phone?
No. OrangeFox (or any other recovery) **cannot** encrypt anything. Encryption is done by your **ROM**.
16. I am using OrangeFox, and now when I set a password or PIN in my ROM, they are rejected as being wrong
You will get this behaviour if you are using Lavender, and your device is not encrypted. This is the result of bugs in Lavender (probably in Xiaomi's Pie firmwares), which means that, if the device is not encrypted, then passwords/PIN/fingerprint will not work. The only solution at the moment is to encrypt your device. This is **not** an OrangeFox issue (so, please do not ask OrangeFox developers any questions about it). It is also not a ROM issue. It is a Xiaomi bug in Lavender.
17. I am using OrangeFox, and now my fingerprint is not working/I can't find fingerprint settings
Same answer as above.
18. How do I take the OrangeFox logs for posting?
There are a variety of ways:
+ Tap on "*Menu -> More -> Copy Log to SD*", and swipe. This will copy the logs to your internal
storage ("**/sdcard/Fox**").
+ Connect a PC to your device via adb, and run the command: adb pull /tmp/recovery.log
19. Aroma/AromaFM doesn't work
That is unfortunate - but there is nothing that can be done about it - unless and until somebody decides to update the Aroma project
20. How can I know the maintainer for my device?
Tap on Menu->About
21. I have encountered a problem while using OrangeFox Recovery
+ Provide the logs - and -
+ Provide a full explanation of precisely what has happened, and precisely how you got to that point.
+ If you do not provide both of these, then I will simply ignore any report of any problem. So, it is advisable to (a) learn how to take logs before trying anything, and (b) always take the logs before rebooting after using the recovery.
22. I wanna be a OrangeFox maintainer
Write to @MrYacha via Telegram